A Brief History of Streaming Video

Video is everywhere, and by 2017 80% of all the world data will be video. It feels like the world suddenly discovered live streaming, which is something we’ve been doing here at Ustream since 2007. In fact, don’t tell Periscope or Meercat, but live streaming on mobile devices isn’t even new. We introduced our first broadcast-capable apps for iOS and Android all the way back in 2009 (really!) and since then we’ve helped Fortune 500 companies launch new products, broadcast concerts from famous recording artists, help citizen journalists document events, and family members share special moment via live, on-the-scenes broadcasts.

Now don’t get us wrong … we’re very happy that live streaming is getting a lot of buzz and that everyone decided to join the party. We’d like to take a step back and show you a brief history of streaming video and how we got to where we are now!